More Carb Nite and Carb Back-Loading Tips Part 7

In an effort to stay up to date with all of Kiefer’s prolific work, here is the next series of notes I’ve taken. This is the fourth edition of my Kiefer notes. Again some of these are from his own site, Body.io and some from when he appears as a guest on other podcasts.

For those that don’t know, Kiefer is the author of both The Carb Nite Solution and Carb Back-Loading, both ways of eating that I’ve been playing around with recently. Here is the official link to all of his guest appearances.

Most women are hitting the training aspect way to hard while not eating enough.

A lot of information out there is meant for males and are inappropriate for women, which is why so many women run into trouble.

Kiefer working on software to figure out people’s energy expenditure.

In women, he’s found that women have this baseline calorie expenditure that their body will adhere to almost regardless of activity, based completely on their lean tissue. The secret to getting women being able to eat more or to get their calories in line has nothing to do with exercise.

As women exercise more, their body down-regulates everything else to get their energy expenditure back down to that baseline.

Men are different because they actually CAN up-regulate their metabolism to match their exercise. Women DO NOT do this.

For men, it can work to exercise more to burn more energy, however with women, if they exercise more, you can destroy their metabolism. It might work for 1-2 weeks, but that’s it.

It’s really important for women to focus on resistance training for their lean mass.

Cardio is absolutely the wrong thing to do for women.

Rocky wonders how much of this is a protective mechanism in terms of reproduction.

Kiefer says the study he referred to was comparing between elite athletes and sedentary women. And they both demonstrated the same relationship depending on their lean mass. If their lean mass was equivalent, despite the difference in body fat percentage, they still had the same metabolic expenditure.

AJ says that their prototypical client is someone who’s paleo, doing Crossfit 6x a week and has adrenal fatigue and thyroid problems. The only things they need to do are ratchet down the exercise, focus more on resistance training, increase their food intake and throw in some Carb Nites, and things pretty much correct themselves.

AJ likes to mountain bike in the Summer, and all that cardio screws her up, but people think that she does it to get her results, when that’s completely not the case. She only does it because she likes it, and she even says that she wish she didn’t like it, because of how badly it screws her up.

Things are actually easier for her in the off-season when she isn’t biking.

Rocky clarifies that they’re not talking about all cardio, but in terms of how intense the cardio is. If it’s greater than 60% max heart rate, then yes, cardio can be bad for you, but if you’re at 30-40% max heart rate, then cardio’s good for you!

Kiefer shows off his ‘meat-head’ voice pretending to give women tips on how to use a treadmill…

The new women show with AJ and Alex will be called Her Body IO

One of the topics they’ll cover on the show is being clear on their goals and being at peace with those goals.

AJ was surprised at how many women are on strict long term ketogenic diets who also do Crossfit.

Her and Alex found that these women were also scared of carbs.

Then Carb Shock came out, and AJ thought this was the best thing for these women, to help them get their insulin spike.

Now they’re ranting against Dr. Oz.

Now Kiefer’s saying how the mission of Body IO now is directed towards education and is becoming a publishing company.

Both AJ and Alex have books in the works. Rocky might also have a book that he’s supposed to be working on.

Cooper, Kiefer’s dog is now farting in his podcast sound booth…

CBL 2 and CNS 2 are coming out in 2015. There will also be a certification program for Body IO and they will also release the official Coaching list.

Kiefer loves Land-O-Lakes butter, and reasserts that there’s no reason to buy Kerrygold, because conventional butter is the same.

Kiefer says his family stopped buying butter when he was a kid because he used to sneaky into the fridge and take bites out of the sticks of butter.

He had some chronic infections and going low carb helped him diagnose them by making them present themselves.

Jaminet says he has more problems going low carb than most people because of those pre-existing infections

In Perfect Health Diet, they recommend 30% carbs which is what they think the body needs to make things like mucous, tears, and glycosaminoglycans in cartilage.

When you eat less than 30% carbs the body tries to conserve carbs and begins to turn production of these things off

Kiefer says that some of these changes are transitory

Jaminet says that in his case, things weren’t transient, but may have been compounded by the fact that he had an underlying fungal infection

Kiefer says ketogenic diet is not the best long term diet for people, but him and Rocky like cyclic ketogenic.

Kiefer says that a lot of people that recommend low carb diets right now are all in excellent health, and their recommendations might not be appropriate for people who are sick or even for the general public.

Rocky asks if there was a specific piece of literature behind the 30% carb recommendations or if it was trial and error

Jaminet’s answer seems to indicate that it was a result of trial and error and when he noticed things improving in himself, he looked in the literature to see what carbs were used for. One of these was for immune function. When you have an infection your body needs carbs to fight them off. Mucus is also made from carbs.

Food is needed both for energy and also to be used to rebuild the body, so he reasoned that it’s better to ‘eat what you are.’

Bone broth and carbs are important because they provide components for extra cellular matrix and gut barrier integrity

Jaminet says most people eat too many carbs

Kiefer says eating carbs on a regular basis, throughout the day and/or daily, has been shown to produce reactive oxygen species production, and endoplasmic reticulum dysfunction which causes errors in protein folding. This protein misfolding, when it builds up, can spread through the body like a virus, like prions. And insulin actually impairs the body’s response to deal with these misfolded proteins.

Kiefer says all the research he’s seeing points to the fact that the standard American diet right now is like a perfect storm

CBL is for healthier people, and they eat about 30% carbs daily, but all at the end of the day.

Jaminet says that he’s seen that same research and interprets it a little differently. He thinks that all that damage is a result of ‘excess energy’ and not so much ‘excess carbohydrate.’ Eating too many carbs is one path to those bad things… but there are some papers that also show the same thing happening when eating too much fat!

Jaminet says that a solution to an excess energy diet is fasting

And one reason that people are driven to excess energy diets is because of underlying micronutrient deficiency

Jaminet says if you’re eating low carb diet, then you need to increase your protein so that you can encourage the body’s conversion of protein to glucose

Rocky asks if there are any adjustments for people who are insulin resistant.

Jaminet says that he basically starts people on the same thing and problems go away 95% of the time. But he doesn’t use diet only, he also incorporates exercise and circadian rhythm entrainment

Jaminet says intermittent fasting by itself restores insulin sensitivity in people a lot of the time.

Another component Jaminet uses is re-shaping the gut biome

So Jaminet says, he doesn’t really tweak anything for people until they’ve gone through all of these steps.

Kiefer asks how Jaminet feels about CBL which he developed to take advantage of all of these things.

Kiefer says that you can still get autophagy and all the benefits of intermittent fasting, as long as carbs and insulin is kept low.

Jaminet says that he’s seen some work showing that its more beneficial to have more protein earlier in the day and carbs later in the day.

Jaminet says that the best time to eat calories is in the afternoon.

Jaminet says autophagy is promoted not only by lack of carbs, but also lack of protein and lack of fat, and depletion of ATP in the cell. So it’s a good thing to invoke all of these things in the fats

He recommends drinking just black coffee during the fasts which also helps promote autophagy.

Jaminet says that when people have a hard time with fasts, a lot of it has to do with lack of electrolytes.

Rocky’s first rant is about people who claim that if diabetics don’t get carbs, they will die. Which is patently wrong.

His second rant is about the whole resistant starch debacle.

Kiefer refers to Lagakos as ‘the mouse doctor’ because he has only worked with mice in labs, and not with real humans. According to Kiefer, Lagakos has been recommending type 2 diabetics eating all of their carbs in the morning when they wake up. Kiefer says this is disastrous. (Surprising to hear Kiefer suddenly go so anti-Lagakos).

Kiefer says we don’t need to ingest carbs to live.

He says the body can make 75 gm of carbs from the protein we eat per day, which is way more than we need. It’s enough to take care of all the extra cellular matrix structures we need and glycogen replenishment (which goes against what Jaminet just said in the last podcast).

This still doesn’t mean that Body IO recommends going ketogenic all the time either!

AJ rants about the extremes.

People offer to pay her just to answer a questions, ‘do calories matter?’

They also hate the words ‘metabolic damage’

Of course calories matter, it’s just a poor tool. Kiefer calls it a blunt instrument.

Apparently a lot of these rants originate from commenters on facebook

You can lose fat and gain muscle by staying at the same caloric load or even a higher caloric load, just by utilizing thermodynamic inefficiencies.

They have people that show this with DEXA scans.

People who believe in Calories in Calories out can’t wrap their heads around this.

Kiefer brings up Alan Aragon up as one of the calories in calories out people that can’t wrap their heads around this stuff

AJ and Rocky both have patients/clients that lose fat and gain muscle at the same time on a certain caloric load.

AJ refuses to comment on the ‘thigh gap’ phenomena

There’s no way to comment on things without putting a certain group down, like if she comes out pro-thigh gap then she puts down the anti-thigh gap group

Kiefer hates when people are having an intelligent scientific debate, and someone comes in with, “do you even lift bro?”

Kiefer goes against the “Tiger Fitness” youtube dude, and says that he may be one of the most ‘mentally incapacitated’ fitness commentators out there.

They all like the ‘Broscience’ guy.

They all talk about the good and the bad of social media.

Kiefer talks about how there is more evidence is coming out that the whole anti-gluten thing now is a canard.

Kiefer calls out William Davis and Wheat Belly for leaving out critical information. He talked about the addictive chemicals in wheat, but failed to mention that the only way to get those chemicals into your brain is to inject it intravenously.

The cure for the gluten allergy is to just convince yourself that you don’t have it.

Then the next thing people are rushing to are FODMAPs. People are claiming that it’s not the gluten in wheat that’s causing the issues, it’s FODMAPs. Right now there is no research on FODMAPs…

He says that the whole anti-gluten thing now isn’t health or even science based right now, but is now reputation based.

The business of paleo has turned things off for Rocky.

Kiefer maintains that carbohydrates are the cause of all these issues.

Kiefer now says that paleo now is to the point where it’s recommending the same macronutrient ratios as the standard American diet!

Kiefer says he really likes Mark Sisson’s approach, but trademarking and protecting primal. So other people can’t bastardize it and try to profit from it.

Kiefer starts of by saying the main key of T3 Fuel is that a lot of people have thyroid hormone level deviations that aren’t always caused by ‘adrenal fatigue’

But it’s just because some people don’t have the mineral support. That’s why one of the components is the iodine.

Thyroid hormone mainly acts on ‘Uncoupling Protein 1’ (there are three total), and this regulates internal body temperature. When UCP1 is turned on, it causes the body to burn energy as heat.

Kiefer says that one of the things that happen in the cellular level, that isn’t ever talked about, is that if the cells in your body are sick, specifically your mitochondria, then they are telling your body to decrease thyroid hormone output.

The key ingredient to help this issue is Resveratrol (which he still pronounces resveraTAWL)

The healthier your mitochondria are the less susceptible you are to things like, cancer.

Kiefer says that it’s hard to get this high a dosage of resveratrol as seen in T3 Fuel.

Rocky addresses what sick mitochondria means. One of the ways they get sick is by driving too many nutrients through the mitochondria as seen in those pre-diabetic patients of overweight patients that are just shoveling too much food. The second mechanism is the chronic dieter who isn’t eating enough calories.

Kiefer agrees with the first mechanism.

On the other hand, he says if you exercise too much and your calorie intake is too low, that actually affects your body at the thyroid level (not the mitochondria).

So Rocky clarifies that what he was trying to say was that with the first mechanism, it is more of a bottom up mechanism, and the second mechanism is top down.

Rocky asks if there have been any downsides to resveratrol.

Kiefer says that the study he’s found with the highest dosage in humans, 5 gm, the only side effect was diarrhea. The dosage in T3 Fuel is 250 mg per serving.

Rocky says that this supplement still will not be enough to treat hypothyroidism. Patients will still need to take their thyroid medications. T3 Fuel is just an adjunct and will not replace thyroid medications.

Paying attention to training and nutrition is still necessary.

Women who eat low calories, high percentage of carbs, and do a lot of cardio, is the perfect storm for thyroid dysfunction. These people are screwing up their thyroid from the bottom (at the level of the mitochondria) and at the top (at the level of the thyroid gland).

Kiefer brings up the data from Dom D’agostino and Dr. Feinman showing how cancer is more and more a metabolic disease from the ingestion of too many carbs.

Rocky asks if you can take T3 Fuel if you’re on thyroid hormone replacement which is a question he’s seen on facebook forums.

Kiefer says Yes.

What time of day should to take T3 Fuel?

It doesn’t matter if it’s taken with or without a meal, although if you take it with a fat load, it can decrease the bioavailability. Actually he rescinds this. Kiefer says the best time to take this is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This is because there are circadian patterns in activity to some of the enzymes that bind and break down resveratrol, and these enzymes are lowest in activity in the morning.

So T3 Fuel should be taken in the morning on an empty stomach.

There is a caveat to this, but he will bring this up later.

Can T3 Fuel be taken with caffeine? Like with coffee in the morning.

Kiefer recommends taking this before coffee or after coffee. It’s best taken on it’s own.

Is it common with T3 Fuel and/or Carb Shock to get hot at night?

This is a good sign, it means that you’re highly insulin sensitive. It means that T3 Fuel and Carb Shock are doing their job.

One of the main activation pathway to the benefits of resveratrol is through the SIRT 1 pathway. Metabolites of leucine also work through this pathway. There is sometimes a competitive activation between MTOR (a positive regulator of muscle growth and tissue repair) and SIRT 1 pathway.

In the research there is synergy between taking high amounts of leucine and high amounts of resveratrol when taken at the same time, with greater fat oxidation in both fat and muscle cells, and greater hypertrophy signals in muscle cells.

The two together are very powerful together.

Kiefer says the SIRT 1 gene activation is where all the intermittent fasting people get their benefits from

So if you are training, it’s best to take T3 Fuel 1-1.5 hrs pre-workout, and then post workout when you take Carb Shock, you will maximize the synergy between the two.

This is the instance where you don’t want to take the T3 Fuel in the morning.

AJ talks about dysmenorrhea, which is severe menstrual pain. It’s been so bad for her that she’s actually passed out on the bathroom floor.

AJ has primary dysmenorrhea (there aren’t any other pelvic issues like endometriosis), which is related to elevated prostaglandins and uterine contractions that cause pain.

She’s suffered with this for her whole life. When she started taking T3 Fuel, all of her pain beginning with her next cycle disappeared. At the time of this podcast, it’s been like this for the past 5 months.

She started looking at research and she saw that resveratrol has been used to prevent and minimize uterine contractions.

How long to supplement with T3 Fuel for someone how is cold sensitive?

The question is too nonspecific. Kiefer says that he designed T3 Fuel for himself, and he says he will take it for himself for the rest of his life. High dosage resveratrol is nothing but benefit. It will slow the aging process and increase repair processes. It can potentially reduce the risk of cancer.

Kiefer says you really can’t give yourself a healthier supplement.

Kiefer says there are too many potential causes for why this patient is cold and he can’t comment on it.

Can you take it if you are hyperthyroid?

There are three phases that T3 Fuel acts on, 1) Component that will allow maximal T3 production, 2) Component that will make the thyroid more robust and resistant to stress induced T3 decrease, 3) Component that will make the cells in the body healthier to allow more energy production.

If not a training day, best to take it first thing in the morning on empty stomach. If it is a training day best to take it 1 hr before training to work as adjunct with post-workout Carb Shock.

Yeah, I haven’t read the Ketogenic Diet book, indeed, but he always says in his FB group that his first book was very in-depth but a pain to read for most folks, I have read though his other books and they are waaay more direct and enjoyable, just in case you were let down because of the density of the first one 😉

Uhm… good question, It depends pretty much on context, I’d say in your case you could start with anyone, for someone really interested to matching training with diet I’d say the Ultimate Diet 2.0, although even lyle says it’s a pain of a diet and would only recomend it for quite lean people that want to get down to single digits.

His Rapid Fat Loss Handbook is a short booklet about a crash diet designed to burn the most fat by trying to preserve as much LBM as possible, it’s basically a modified protein fast, as simple as it sounds, the book is quite informative.

Then there’s the bromocriptine book, that although it’s name can be a little bit weird, it explains in quite good detail why losing weight sucks so much, the role of leptin etc… quite good indeed.

The Stubborn Fat Loss Solution adds up to the previous with some tricks that might help getting rid of the last bits of fat as it’s obvious from the title.

This order would be good I guess, some of them are so short that if you would you could end them in one day if you have the time.

Dear BJJ: Just wondering, have you ever gotten a blood ketone level up in the 2-4 mmole range? Supposedly, if you are keto-adapted, your ketone level should be higher than what you have posted in your 10-week Carb Nite experiment. From my own experience, if I don’t do a carb nite for a month, my ketone level can reach up to 3.5 mmol consistently.
According to Dr. Phinney, one’s ketone level should be around 1.5-3 mmole to reap the benefits from ketosis.
Have been contemplating if i should really do Carb Nite since I usually don’t get my ketone level back until 3-4 days post a carb refeed. So in theory, I am only in ketosis for 2-3 days…
Your advice is appreciated

Yes. Highest I’ve gotten it is in the high low 3s, but never consistently. My body might just be one of those that really needs to cut back on overall protein intake… it’s just that when I do, I feel starved all the time!

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